To that point, virtually his entire life had been spent in the Mississippi Delta, where folks are accustomed to frequent rain and don’t panic when sprinkles turn into a monsoon or even a hurricane. Micheal Spurlock had to come to San Diego, of all places, to find out just how terrifying a little rainfall can be.

His career at Ole Miss complete and his chances slim of being taken by anybody in the National Football League draft of 2006, Spurlock was on his way from his trainer’s gym in Alpine to perform for NFL scouts at San Diego State. As a passenger in a car driven by former Ole Miss teammate Marcus Johnson, Spurlock had a too-perfect view of another vehicle sliding out of control, then slamming right into their car at the I-8 and Mission Gorge.

“Nobody’d told me yet about how some people out here drive in the rain,” said Spurlock, 29, now a wide receiver and return man with the Chargers. “Everybody came out of the collision fine, but right then and there, I got some perspective. I learned how quickly things can change in your life, how one thing like that, going one way or the other, even just a little bit, can alter everything.”

In retrospect, Spurlock thinks that scare six-plus ago is partly why he’s not the least bit discouraged by an NFL career that’s bounced him around pretty good since, including on-and-off stints with Tampa Bay and San Francisco and releases from both San Diego and Jacksonville earlier this season. To the contrary, he’s appreciative of every opportunity, the fact that he’s lasted so long in a game where the average career lasts 3 ½ years.

“There are enough ups and downs in this league,” Spurlock said. “Don’t rock the roller-coaster.”

Conversely, while everything about the future of the Chargers is up in the air with Sunday's finale of a dreadful season, Spurlock surely has done enough over the past month as a replacement for injured Eddie Royal to warrant serious consideration for his return next year. And not just because of Thursday's announcement that he's the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.

There were the seven receptions – five converting third downs to firsts – in an upset of the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

“That was big for me,” said Spurlock. “I mean, you’re talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers. You’re talking about physical football. We’d gone 0-for-14 there, never won a regular season game there.

“To do the things we did, and to be a big part of it, like, wow. I was like, “Is this really happening? Will somebody please pinch me?’ ”

You have to catch him first, something the New York Jets failed to do last Sunday. Spurlock set the early tone for the Chargers win at New York with a 63-yard touchdown return of the game’s opening punt -- the first such return against the Jets in nine years -- and finished with 173 total return yards.

The AFC special-teams award was the third of his career. In the years before he came to the Chargers, Spurlock had returned two kickoffs and one punt for Tampa Bay scores, including a 90-yarder that was the first TD with a kickoff in Buccaneers history.

This, understand, is a player who'd never brought back kicks of any kind before his rookie NFL season of '06. Nor had he played wide receiver.

Spurlock, an athlete who was such a good quarterback that he set Mississippi high school passing records and compiled 4,500 yards while throwing or rushing for 45 touchdowns his senior season, stayed close to home by choosing Ole Miss. That meant he spent much of his college career backing up Eli Manning, then wound up a Rebels running back.

He and Johnson signed with an Encinitias-based agent -- former SDSU and Green Bay Packers lineman Rich Moran – who had them training before the draft with former All-Pro Mike Douglass in Alpine and track coach Rhan Sheffield.

"Put it this way," said Douglass. "I've worked with a lot of NFL players, but the only one whose jersey is hanging in my gym is Micheal's. His dedication to preparation is off the charts. He's not the type to kick down doors. All he needs is a crack that's open to him."

Spurlock has a degree in criminal justice, with a minor in sociology, and a plan to eventually continue his parents’ work of providing hospice care to the elderly. He has four young daughters of his own.

“That the best part of my day, going home to my wife (Danielle) and kids,” said Spurlock. “No matter how good or bad my day is at work, I get in my car and go home. The kids hear the garage door, run downstairs and it’s “Daddy is home!” It’s the sweetest thing.”